QUIDDITCH AT HOGWARTS: AN ESSAY
by Loquor Veritas
Summary: Hermione, in an essay, reflects on Quidditch at Hogwarts.


Not a day goes by that I don't receive letters asking for information about Quidditch, from both boys and girls. These letters ought to go to Ginny, but I've promised to answer some of the more persistent questions.

As Ms. Rowling makes abundantly plain, I'm not an athlete, myself. But interest in Quidditch and its role in the Wizarding world remains high among Muggles. Like Muggle sport, it isn't a thing you can get away with ignoring.

Ms. Rowling simplifies the Quidditch scene at Hogwarts quite a bit, and a reader might imagine that the House matches were the only Quidditch at school. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Almost everybody at Hogwart plays Quidditch, in all weathers, as often as they can (or, in my case, can be made to).

As with any sport, there is quite a wide range of abilities, from the lowly impromptu matches to the School Team. But the prefects, Heads of House, and House Captains were generally fanatical enough about the game to make sure we all played some. It was considered to be an essential part of one's time at Hogwarts.

Quidditch is a bit of a mania at Hogwarts, and every House Captain had his or her own style of cultivating keenness. It was a little bit like a religion, and (at least for captains like Oliver Wood and Angelina Johnson) I think it was presumed that Quidditch improved one morally somehow: non-players were obliged to prove their usefulness to the House in some other way, through brains or some inferior sport. But it was always understood that Quidditch was what mattered most.

Wood was generous in believing that not everybody had the talent to be on the House Seven, but he certainly felt that everyone had a duty to try to be. Shirking Quidditch turn-out was generally felt by Wood to be a mortal sin. Some of the House Second Seven spoke bitterly of "morning Woods," or early practices, which only a strong passion for the sport could forgive. (It will come as no surprise that these became known as "morning Johnsons" when Wood left and Angelina became captain.)

But everybody in the house was obliged to play a little. If one wanted a nearly hysterical lecture from Wood, one had only to try to get out of early morning flying.

 **HOVERS**

Only the very keenest Quidditch players really liked Hovers, which were reserved for junior House members who got Quidditch no other way. You could be excused if you were in a House team or spent free-time playing scratch games or taking practice with others at the House Pitch, but otherwise, you were made to put in an appearance once a week before breakfast. Captains typically could detect the heresy of Quidditch-slackness with uncanny accuracy, and set out to redeem the juniors from this worst of sins.

If you made it into fourth year without showing signs of Quidditch passion, you were deemed to be a bit of a hopeless case and consigned to Potions Club or Gobstones or Hippogriff Dressage (which is a perfectly beautiful sport to watch), and the early morning Hovers ceased.

I well remember being turned out at dawn by Tresa Hangling, a Prefect and member of the House Second Seven (the second best team in the House, "Seven" being shorthand for a full Quidditch team) in our first year, for weekly "Hovers." Along with a batch of other first years, we would be made to mount brooms in the frosty air and hover for a moment while Tresa threw gentle passes to us while the sun rose over the mountains.

At first, these could be quite enjoyable. We would stop in time for a quick wash and brush up, a change into class robes, and breakfast.

But within a month or so of our arrival at Hogwarts, the intensity of hovers increased. It was assumed by the prefects and House Captain, Wood, that we would eventually show Quidditch brilliance in these ceremonies. They can only have been disappointed by such freaks as myself and Neville. Neither of us could catch a quaffle, and I'm sure it was absolutely painful to watch me at keeper drills, alone in front of the practice-hoop (a quarter of the usual height), trying to stop shots on the goal without falling from my broom.

But while Neville improved steadily (especially after our fourth year), I remained as dreadful as the day I arrived.

Tresa was a kind girl, and Oliver Wood had delegated her for this "developmental" duty, though any member of the House First or Second team could require a less senior student out for Hovers.

But even Tresa couldn't make these "fun" for a non-athlete like myself: I suffered several broken (and mended) noses from practice-bludgers and quaffles, and innumerable scrapes and abrasions from falling from my broom. As we ascended from First Years to Second to Third, the weekly morning Hovers became more intense, including seeking a slower (and larger)-than-regulation snitch; Beating Hovers (usually termed "Beavers") in which we took turns hitting practice-bludgers; flying drills; and of course chasing practice, which for students of my very low abilities generally involved very slow flight with feet just off the ground, and a lot of landing to pick up dropped quaffles.

 **INTRAHOUSE QUIDDITCH**

As Ms. Rowling describes inter-House Quidditch very well, I will add only that it was the real passion of all the Houses and students, and even indifferent athletes like myself got very excited by these matches more than any other sort. It represented the best Quidditch available to us, and was quite thrilling.

While the all-consuming House matches were suspended during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, it would have been beyond even Dumbledore's power to suspend Quidditch entirely for a whole year, and he certainly never thought of trying: games were got up informally all that year, even between House teams, and only the majestic School Pitch was without its accustomed slate of matches.

And while there were several other Wizarding sports available at Hogwarts, Quidditch was hands down the year-round favorite. Really, there was a great deal more Quidditch in our lives than Ms. Rowling's stories had space for!

Every day, everybody checked the House bulletin board in the Common Room for the week's Quidditch activities. Sometimes lists of inmates might be called out by name, by skill level (I belonged to a class generally known as "The Dreadfuls"), or by class, or even by dormitories.

If one were lucky, one might be merely called out for morning hovers on a broomstick and practices throwing the quaffle in a circle; or flying laps; or slow-beats (hovering on a broom and beating a bludger that's bewitched to fly at a slower-than-normal pace).

There are seeking-drills with a slow Snitch; there are flying drills, such as performing zig-zags; and…

There are the dreaded Keeper drills, performed at half- or quarter-height goalposts.

Not all Captains forced their Houses into the Quidditch field. They didn't always have to. Generally by six in the morning of the first day of Autumn Term, the various pitches were full of short pick-up games and players "shaking off the Nargles" before breakfast.

But under the regime of the fanatical Wood and Johnson, rare was the week in which the House bulletin board didn't call out, "Third Year Hovers: 7 A.M.," or "Fifth Year Girls vs. House Second Seven after dinner;" or "Gannon's Dorm vs. a Ravenclaw side, Saturday."

At least once a week, "First vs. Second Seven" was called for. The House Captain designates first, second, and third teams for his or her house. Harry was in the Gryffindor First Seven from our first year, made the School Second Seven his second year, and got his School First Seven colors in his third year.

Once or twice a month, House captains would fix up a "Friendly" with another house. I often imagined Angelina Johnson raising an eyebrow in her meetings with Roger Davies and saying, "I have some truly awful players who don't get enough Quidditch. They aren't very keen." Davies, I imagine, nodded sympathetically and said, "I have some of those, too. Let's make them go at it on Thursday before dinner." Twelve times at Hogwarts I was made to play in these "friendlies" against similarly dreadful players from other Houses.

Friendly matches and intrahouse games, it need scarcely be said, were almost never played on the sacred School Pitch, which was kept quite jealously by the House Captains.

 **THE PITCHES, CHANGING ROOMS, AND BATHROOMS**

The School Pitch, which is just as Ms. Rowling describes it, is where House matches and School matches are played.

The goal-posts and therefore the "ceiling" (playing height, not a real ceiling) are alarmingly high, the stands spacious and elevated almost to the ceiling, and almost always full on game-days. The grass below is kept by Hagrid, who indeed keeps all the pitches as Grounds-Keeper.

But rare is the School Captain of Quidditch who does not consult with Hagrid almost obsessively about such essentials as the springiness of the turf, the symmetry of the goals, the orientation of play to the prevailing winds. The ground plays a greater role in Quidditch than one might think: falling off a broom, touching down to earth to perform a tighter turn, and making use of the "floor" (ground) for both defense and attack are common for the Quidditch player.

Behind the School Pitch, each House has its own half-pitch for practice and recreation, with goal posts at half the usual height, or "ceiling"). There are also two Friendlies Pitches, which are full sized but with the goal posts at half the height of the School pitch, to reduce the playing height and (theoretically) to minimize injuries. A great deal of practice takes place on the Friendlies Pitches and House pitches, and of course a great deal of argument among juniors about who has rights to the pitches at a given time of day.

Typically junior house members get up games on the Friendlies pitches or even the House pitches, refereed by a teacher or a prefect or (in a pinch) someone who can at least pretend to impartiality.

Teachers and staff also generally play. Hagrid loved the sport but was of course too heavy for even specialty broomsticks and had to content himself with groundskeeping and cheering his old House. But Professors McGonnegal, Flitwick, Sinistra, Quirrel, Lockheart, and Snape took a keen interest in these games, refereeing scratch matches as well as playing in the rare matches when the school got up a side against the teachers. A spirited interest in Quidditch did (and does) much to enhance a teacher's popularity. Professor Sprout once in a while played as a beater when the teachers were short-handed, but in general tended to delegate Hufflepuff's Quidditch to the House Captain. She could be vociferous at House matches, but didn't enjoy playing very much. Neville, when he went to teach Herbology, was quite keen on the game, and he improved enormously as he got older, though he was never a first rate player.

As for the facilities, The School Pitch has the two best changing rooms. House captains usually play an ancient Wizard game of chance (called "Flay-Fortuna"), akin to flipping a coin, to determine who gets the better of the two, usually called the Scalpwing, for reasons nobody remembers. But I suspect it's a very old contraction of "School Pitch Wing," as the changing rooms flank the Pitch.

As you might expect, a House team gets the first run at the House Baths.

 **SCHOOL QUIDDITCH**

The captain of the House team that currently holds the Quidditch Cup is usually Captain of School Quidditch.

A good captain typically cultivates a close relationship with other house captains to see that every student plays at some level at least once a week. One of the goals is to put together the best players in the School for the School team.

School matches are not typically played against other schools (though in the past this has been done), but against visiting regional or county sides. These matches frequently require a great deal of sportsmanship, since generally one side or the other dominates the other. Once, in 1956, England played the School, and flattened Hogwarts' School Team.

As serious as House rivalries are, they are generally set aside during School matches. A team of Oliver Wood at Keeper, Cedric Diggory at Seeker, Slytherin Chaser Jacob Parkinson with Roger Davies, and other Quidditch stars beat the stuffing out of a county team from Northumberland in our first year, and all four Houses joined in cheering them on. Afterwards, the visitors and the School Team ate together at a table just below the High Table. (As a matter of interest, Madam Hooch refereed most such matches.)

Visiting teams may request to play the School Second Seven, if they feel they are too badly outclassed by the School First, and this is generally done in the interest of good sportsmanship.

The Old Hogwartians bring down three or four teams once a year to play against whatever the School can muster. Several matches take place, culminating in the O.H.'s best against the School First. And this match is always a great favorite. By custom, one cannot play as an Old Hogwartian if one plays professionally: when Oliver Wood played for Puddlemere United, he was not able to play in the O.H. matches. Naturally, most professionals were at one time their House captains, and probably bemoaned the O.H.'s desire to play professionals. So Wood accepted his fate with an ill grace as his just desserts.


End file.
